European lawmakers have backed down from attempts to enforce a minimum number
of women appointments in company boardrooms.

The decision has been met with relief among Britain’s biggest companies, who
had been joined by politicians in lobbying vigorously against a plan pushed
by Viviane Reding, Europe’s Justice Commissioner, to force companies to have
women in at least 40 per cent of non-executive roles by the end of the
decade. Other European Union states, including the Netherlands and Sweden,
had also opposed mandatory quotas.

Yesterday, the European Commission issued a directive setting a “minimum
objective” of 40 per cent female non-executive